Title: The “American Picker” Jesus
Text: Matthew 13:44-46
Thesis: There is joy in discovering the extraordinary gift of grace in the most ordinary of places.
Introduction
American Pickers is a reality television series that premiered on January 18, 2010 on the History Channel. The premier episode earned 3.1 million views making it the highest rated History Channel debut since Ice Road Truckers in 2007. It continues to be popular with views who are fascinated when someone discovers and puts back into circulation a unique relic that has been laying around in obscurity in someone’s barn or basement.
The program features pickers, Mike Wolfe and Frank Fritz. Mike Wolfe owns and operates Antique Archeology which is a specialty shop that sells antiques, vintage items and fold art in the little berg of Le Claire, Iowa. But Le Claire is only the base of his operations. American Pickers follows Mike and Fritz as they go off the beaten path to meet off-beat characters who have stuff stored away in basements, backrooms, back-alleys, barns and wherever. It is really quite a fascinating and educational reality series. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Pickers)
Sometimes they go with a specific thing in mind but you never know what they might unearth from under an old tarp or off the top shelf or from a long unopened box. In a recent program Mike Wolfe found the pick of a lifetime in the form of a 1937 Harley Davidson Knucklehead Motorcycle that he was able to pick up for a mere $21,000.
American Pickers are always on the hunt for the find of a lifetime.
This morning we will look at two stories about the discovery of two different treasurers… one is an unspecified treasure a man happened upon in a field and the other is a pearl of exquisite beauty and value that a pearl merchant found in his quest for pearls.
One man was not looking for a treasure and found it. The other man was looking and looking and looking for the most exquisite pearl on the planet… he was picking through collections of pearls day after day and week after week and month after month and year after year and then one day, he found it.
As these two stories suggest, I think we may think of Jesus as an advocate for “picking.”
I. People discover Christ in different ways.
“The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field…” Matthew 13:44
“The kingdom of heaven is like a merchant looking for fine pearls…” Matthew 13:45
Let me begin by clarifying one thing. Some believe and teach that the man who found the treasure represents Jesus and the man who discovered the pearl is Jesus which would have the treasure in the field and the pearl represent us. In other words, Jesus is the one who discovers and seeks us out and we are the precious objects of his search.
Of course there is a way in which that makes some sense to us because “God so love the world that He sent His Son so that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.” John 3:16 And then there is the great price paid… “But God demonstrated his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” Romans 5:8
However the parables are about discovering the kingdom of heaven or discovering Christ…. Jesus said, “The kingdom of heaven is like a treasure…” In other words the kingdom is the treasure… Christ is the treasure and Christ is the pearl.
A. One person stumbles upon Christ and the kingdom of heaven.
In every period of time and every culture people have hidden valuables in the ground. Usually the money or valuables were buried to keep them from being taken by an invading army or if it was necessary to leave quickly and you needed to secure your stuff, you buried it. Remember the case of the servant who buried his talent and was castigated for not having invested it at least for interest.
Of course everyone who buries a treasure expects to return one day and dig it up
In 1992 volunteers from Concordia College in Moorhead, Minnesota, excavating in Caesarea dug up 99 gold coins that had been stashed in a makeshift safe beneath the floor of what was once a private dwelling. Caesarea is considered one of Israel’s richest archaeological sites in that diggers are still unearthing treasures after 21 years of digging. (Christian Reader, Vol. 32, no. 3)
I’m sure the guy who stashed his gold coins under the floor of his home in biblical times did not anticipate that someone else would find his cache of coins in 1992.
Just a couple of years ago I read of a find by an amateur treasure hunter in England who found, according to a team of archeologists, the most significant discovery of buried Anglo-Saxon treasure in English history. Using a metal detector he found buried in a friends farmland field 1,345 gold and silver objects dating back to the seventh century A.D. It is known as the Stafford Shire Hoard. (Brian Larson, Editor of PreachingToday.com; source: Raphael G. Satter, “Largest hoard of Anglo-Saxon treasure found in UK,” Yahoo News – for more information see the website, http://www.staffordshirehoard.org.uk/)
As the old-time American prospectors used to say, “Thar’s gold in them thar hills.” Buried treasure is just waiting to be discovered.
And so it is with Christ and his kingdom. Some people find Christ in the most innocuous ways and places. People find Christ in personal encounters with others, in a church service, while receiving communion, in a Sunday School class or a bible study group, in a conversation over coffee in a Starbucks, during vacation bible school, while reading the bible or a book, listening to the radio or watching TV, driving to work or sitting on a park bench.
I have a friend who was working in his workshop in his garage one Sunday while Jimmy Swagger was playing on the small TV in his garage. It was during the most tumultuous time shortly when Swagger’s words and character counted for very little. But the Spirit of God spoke to my friend and he was surprisingly and mysteriously changed into a new creature in Christ… in his garage of all places.
I suspect very few of us actually planned the moment when we would receive Christ as our Lord and Savior… there was just a moment when “the planets lined up” so to speak and we committed our lives to him and to becoming his followers. Reference how my parents found Christ. My own salvation. (We did not get up that morning thinking, “Today I’m going to go find Jesus and accept him as my Savior and become a life-long follower of Christ.)
Some of us stumble upon Christ in some ordinary place… and others search with great diligence before they find him.
B. One person searches for Christ and the kingdom of heaven.
Such is the case of those who know there is truth to be discovered out there somewhere and so, sometimes after extended periods of intentional searching, find what they were looking for in Christ.
Such it was with the likes of C.S. Lewis and Chuck Colson and some of you.
People who discover something of unexpected value are usually pleased by their find.
II. People who discover Christ respond with joy.
“”When a man found it, he hid it again, and then in his joy went and sold all he had and bought the field.” Matthew 13:4
Klyne Snodgrass, author of Stories with Intent, says “these are twin similitude’s [twin parables] but not identical twins.” For example, in the first parable of the hidden treasure the finder responds with joy while there is no reference to joy in the case where the pearl merchant discovers the pearl of great value. However, as Klyne Snodgrass points out, “it would be foolish to argue that joy is not present in the second parable as well. No one goes and sells all for something that does not cause the adrenaline to flow.” And the fact that in one parable the treasure is hidden and not so in the other does not detract from the intent of the parable. (Kline Snodgrass, Stories with Intent, Erdmann, PP. 242-243)
The joy of the discoverer is really two-fold:
A. There is the joy of surprise.
Earlier I spoke of British treasure hunter Terry Herbert who discovered the 1,345 gold and silver objects in a field. He is quoted for having said that finding the treasure was “more fun that winning the lottery.” He was so excited when he found the initial cache that he spent the next five days combing through the rest of the farmland. As an aside, he and his landlord friend split the find and each garnered a seven-figure sum of money.
They say, “Money cannot buy you happiness,” and we understand that to be true. However, I defy anyone to deny that finding a million bucks would not put a smile on one’s face.
When C.S. Lewis finally committed himself to Christ he spoke of his experience as being “surprised by joy.”
B. There is the joy of satisfaction (Contentment / Security).
The important point is that in both cases a person makes an incredible discovery that puts a smile on his face and makes his heart race. The men may have made their discoveries in different ways but their responses were the same.
When I speak of the joy of satisfaction I mean there comes a point when the follower of Christ experiences peace and unshakable assurance or security in his or her faith.
One of my favorite passages of scripture is found in I John 5 where it says:
“God has given us eternal life and this life is in his Son. He who has the Son has life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have life. I write these things to you who believe in the Name of the Son of God so that you may know that you have eternal life.” I John 5:11-13
So there is the moment of discovery, then comes the adrenaline rush and joy and then comes the desire to possess the discovery.
III. People who discover Christ know they have found something of exquisite value.
“When a man found it, he hid it again and in his joy went and sold all that he had and bought that field.”
“When he found the pearl of great value, he went away and sold everything he had and bought it.” Matthew 13: 44 and 46
A. People who discover and desire Christ must count the cost.
Parables are common, everyday stories but they have a deeper spiritual meaning. At this point it would be easy to take a literal leap and assume that in order to receive Christ or inherit the kingdom of heaven you have to pony-up money or do something to buy your way in.
We Americans are particularly averse to being obligated to anyone. We will argue over a restaurant tab because we don’t want to be beholden to anyone. We like to pay our own way and be able to say, “I did it on my own.” We aren’t good at receiving.
I just read the little book Heaven is for Real by Todd Burpo with Lynn Vincent. It is the astounding story of a little boy’s trip to heaven and back during a surgical procedure in which he was not expected to live. The Burpo family is a clergy family living in Imperial, Nebraska where the author is pastor of the Nazarene Church.
During the time of extended illness of their little boy, Pastor Todd Burpo and his family received a huge outpouring of support from their family, church and community not only in prayers and encouragement but in the receipt of thousands of dollars to help with medical and living expenses.
Pastor Burpo commented in recounting his story that it was really challenging to change roles from being the “helper” to being the “helpee.” Being the “helpee” can be humbling while being the “helper” is generally good for one’s sense of self-worth.
For some people it is not easy to receive something for nothing.
But being the “helpee” or the recipient is exactly what the person who receives Christ and becomes a follower of Christ is.
Christ is a freebie. The bible says, “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith and this is not of your own doing, it is a gift from God. – not of works, so that no one can boast.” Ephesians 2:8-9
So what does it mean when in the story both discoverers sold everything they had in order to purchase the field where the treasure was hidden and the priceless pearl discovered in a gem shop?
This is what I believe it means.
B. People who discover Christ and opt to follow him must buy in completely.
It is not about paying cash or charging it or going on some kind of installment plan.
So when a person discovers Christ and the kingdom of heaven and weighs his or her decision, it is more like counting the cost in terms of what becoming a follower of Christ might mean.
Obviously in our story, there was nothing that could not be sacrificed by either man in order to possess the treasure.
Jesus taught that if a person wished to be his follower he must deny himself, take up his cross and follow him. Jesus taught that anyone who followed him must reassess his or her personal values when he said, “You cannot serve both God and mammon.” When he said to the rich young man to go and sell all that he had and give it to the poor and then come and follow him, he was asking the young man to reassess his value system… did he love God more than he loved his money. Jesus asked, “What does it profit a man if he gains the whole work and loses his soul?” Jesus taught that wherever and whatever a man’s treasure, there his heart would be also.
So it is not about buying Jesus or buying your way into heaven. It is about buying into Jesus and what it means to be a follower of Christ. It means we ask ourselves the hard questions like: Am I willing to change my value system and my lifestyle and my behaviors and attitudes and conform to Christ-likeness? Or is that asking too much?
In the sports section of the Denver Post last Sunday I read an incredible story about the comeback of Rulon Gardner. You may recall how during the 2,000 Olympics Rulon won the Olympic gold medal in Greco-Roman wrestling by defeating “The Russian Bear,” a man who had not lost a match in 13 years. But Rulon Gardner from the thriving metropolis of Afton, Wyoming defeated him and then promptly walked away from the sport. We heard of him occasionally. Then he was back in the spotlight.
After ballooning up to 474 pounds he appeared on NBS’s Biggest Loser.” He lost 185 pounds in seven months before walking off the show just before discovering if he was the “Biggest Loser.” Being the “Biggest Loser” was not his passion.
Today Rulon Gardner is in Colorado Springs, Colorado where he, at thirty-nine years of age, is preparing to compete in the 2012 Olympics.
The Denver Post quoted Rulon Gardner, “Olympic athletes are a different breed… we are not dealing with million dollar contracts. We don’t d o the sport for those deals. We do the sport because we love the challenge, the battle. We love to be an American.” Interestingly the title of the DP article is “Nothing left to lose.” (Benjamin Hockman, Rulon Gardner back on Olympic track, The Denver Post, Sports, P. 7c)
And that is how it is with followers of Christ. We love our Christ and we embrace the challenge of being his followers. And in committing our lives to him, we have nothing left to lose so we buy-in, holding nothing back.
Those who discover Christ and make the leap of faith are all in.
Conclusion
There is an old story told of an occasion in 1799 when a twelve year old boy named Conrad Reed who skipped church and went fishing in Little Meadow Creek on the family farm near Fayetteville, North Carolina. In an attempt to spear a fish young Conrad Reed missed but his spear struck an interesting looking gold rock, which he carried home. The rock rested out on the front porch until one day when the boy’s father, John, went into Fayetteville and took the rock along to show to a jeweler. The jeweler recognized the seventeen pound rock as one very large gold nugget and offered to buy it from John Reed for whatever price he wanted. John Reed, thinking it was only a pretty rock sold the rock for what was then a week’s wages or $3.50… one tenth of one percent of its real value. (Rev. J. Curtis Goforth, Pirates and Parables, July 27, 2008)
Most of us, upon hearing that story get kind of a sinking feeling in our guts and wonder how incredibly ignorant it was of John Reed to sell a seventeen pound gold rock for $3.50. At current gold prices the rock was worth $435,200.
John Reed soon learned that he had made an unthinkable mistake but after that, though farming was their main focus, in their spare time they began to mine for gold in the creek that ran through their farm and in the end became quite wealthy. They discovered a 28 pound nugget the same year and you can still pan for gold today at the Reed Gold Mine.
While we may think the Fayetteville jeweler was a crook and a cheat, he knew treasure when he saw it, had to have it and offered John Reed whatever price he wanted for that golden stone. John Reed held the same gold stone in his hands and failed to recognize its value.
Meanwhile then was then and now is now and none of dare to foolishly underestimate the value of finding Christ! So with that in mind I leave you with two thoughts.
Two things:
1. For some of us here today, the stories are a reminder of the treasure we have in Christ.
Some may have just come to church this morning just to pick through the stuff of the day never thinking you would stumble onto Christ while others have been picking and looking with great intent and are just now realizing Christ is who and what you’ve been looking for a long time.
2. For others of us here today, the stories are an invitation to find the treasure we have in Christ.
Invitation Prayer
